Effects of LSD25 on an artist

This post taken unashamedly from a series of 9 pages found at www.cowboybooks. com.au (no link). The copyright in images and text is not theirs and is believed to be Public Domain (by virtue of publication by the US government). The truth of the story behind this post is not yet established by me; please take it cautiously. Comments on a similar post have some insight to add.

Take 2 doses of psychotomimetic lysergic acid diethylamide …

Apply to artist and observe.

“everything is… changed…”

In the 1950s the US government, or at least its agents, experimented with drugs. The following are a series of sketches made by an artist after the application of two doses of psychotomimeticLSD 25. The drawings are of the medic that administered the drug – who also made observations of the subject’s/artist’s behaviour (available elsewhere). The first drawing is 20 minutes after the first dose; the second drawing is 85 minutes after the first dose, 20 minutes after the second dose. The eighth drawing is some 5 hours 45 minutes after the first dose at which point the observing medic apparently reports that the subject of the experiment has recovered from the effects of the drug.

Gallery follows.

‘Condition normal… no effect from the drug yet’.

‘I can see you clearly, so clearly. This… you… it’s all … I’m having a little trouble controlling this pencil. It seems to want to keep going.’

‘Outlines seem normal, but very vivid – everything is changing colour. My hand must follow the bold sweep of the lines. I feel as if my consciousness is situated in the part of my body that’s now active – my hand, my elbow… my tongue.’

‘I’m trying another drawing. The outlines of the model are normal, but now those of my drawing are not. The outline of my hand is going weird too. It’s not a very good drawing is it? I give up – I’ll try again…’

‘I’ll do a drawing in one flourish… without stopping… one line, no break!’

‘This will be the best drawing, Like the first one, only better. If I’m not careful I’ll lose control of my movements, but I won’t, because I know. I know.’

‘I can feel my knees again, I think it’s starting to wear off. This is a pretty good drawing – this pencil is mighty hard to hold.’

‘I have nothing to say about this last drawing, it is bad and uninteresting, I want to go home now.’

Lifeslittlemysteries.com claims to have corroborating information on the images, though others express that they are fake. Quoting that site (with links added by me):

Though records of the identity of the principal researcher have been lost, it was probably a University of California-Irvine psychiatrist, Oscar Janiger. Janiger, known for his LSD research, died in 2001.

“I believe the pictures are from an experiment conducted by the psychiatrist Oscar Janiger starting in 1954 and continuing for seven years, during which time he gave LSD to over 100 professional artists and measured its effects on their artistic output and creative ability. Over 250 drawings and paintings were produced,” said Andrew Sewell, a physician at Yale School of Medicine who has done research on psychedelic drugs.

During the experiment, the artist reported how he felt the acid was affecting him as he drew each sketch. To add some modern understanding of how LSD affects the brain to the artist’s scrawlings, we reached out to Sewell and a few other psychologists for insight on what was probably going on in the artist’s head.

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